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Lesson 10: Word Formation Processes

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Define the different word formation processes in the English language;
2. Identify how an English word is formed; and
3. Form new English words following the different word formation processes.
Activity 1. Identifying Words Being Defined
Directions: Identify the word being defined in each item. Write your answer in the space
provided.
Example: xerox 1. To copy on a xerographic copier
_______________1. A form of body modification where a design is made by inserting ink, dyes
and pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to change the
pigment.
_______________2. The standard unit used to measure how strongly an electrical current is sent
around an electrical system
_______________3. A portable breathing device for free-swimming divers, consisting of a
mouthpiece joined by hoses to one or two tanks of compressed air that are strapped on the back
_______________4. A common illness that makes you feel very tired and weak, gives you a sore
throat, and makes you cough and have to clear your nose a lot
_______________5. A meal eaten in the late morning that is a combination of breakfast and
lunch
Learning Content
Compounding
One very common way to form new English words is by compounding. A compound is
formed when two or more words behave as a single word. English speakers know, for example,
that black bird in the sentence I saw a black bird differs from the meaning of blackbird in I saw a
blackbird. In the first sentence, black bird means a bird that is black, a bird of any possible
species. In the second sentence, blackbird refers to a particular species of bird. In the first
sentence, the adjective black modifies the noun bird, and together black bird is a noun phrase
(NP). In the second, blackbird is a noun, and more specifically a compound noun, as illustrated
schematically below,
a. [black] + [bird] adjective + noun
b. [blackbird] compound noun
Compounds can be of any open-class category-noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. There
also exist compound prepositions, and prepositions from the parts of compounds of other
categories (for example, outsource is a preposition + verb compound of the category verb).
Pronouns can also occur in compounds (whoever), as can quantifiers such as some or every
(someone, everything), and there exist a number of historical examples of compound adverbs
such as herewith and thereupon. The table below lists more compounds from all of the major
parts of speech categories, illustrating the wide variety of types.

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Common Compound Words by Type

Nouns Adjectives Verbs Adverbs Prepositions

blackbird childlike blackmail downward into

horsefly ready-to-swear overact upward onto

peanut butter well-off downsize therefore without

six-pack upright update however toward

daughter-in-law single-minded outsource furthermore within

Notice that there is no consistent spelling or punctuation of compounds; they can occur
with hyphens (well-off), as separate words (peanut butter), or spelled out as a single word
(without).

Conversion
A change in the function of a word, as for example when a noun comes to be used as a
verb (without any reduction), is generally known as conversion. Other labels for this very
common process are category change and functional shift. A number of nouns such as bottle,
butter, chair and vacation have come to be used, through conversion, as verbs:
1. We bottled the home-brew last night;
2. Have you buttered the toast?
3. Someone has to chair the meeting.
4. They're vacationing in Florida.
The conversion process is particularly productive in modern English, with new uses
occurring frequently. The conversion can involve verbs becoming nouns, with guess, must and
spy as the sources of a guess, a must and a spy. Phrasal verbs (to print out, to take over) also
become nouns (a printout, a takeover). One complex verb combination (want to be) has become
a new noun, as in:
He isn't in the group, he's just a wannabe.
Verbs (see through, stand up) also become adjectives, as in see-through material or a
stand-up comedian. Or adjectives, as in a dirty floor, an empty room, some crazy ideas and those
nasty people, can become the verbs to dirty and to empty, or the nouns a crazy and the nasty.
Other forms, such as up and down, can also become verbs, to up the price of oil or We downed a
few beers at the Chimes.

Backformation
A very specialized type of reduction process is known as backformation. Typically, a
word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form a word of another type (usually a verb). A
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good example of backformation is the process whereby the noun television first came into use
and then the verb televise was created from it. Other examples of words created by this process
are: donate (from donation), emote (from emotion), enthuse (from enthusiasm), liaise (from
liaison) and babysit (from babysitter). Indeed, when we use the verb backform (Did you know
that opt was backformed from option?), we are using a backformation.
One very regular source of backformed verbs in English is based on the pattern worker –
work. The assumption seems to have been that if there is a noun ending in -er (or something
close in sound), then we can create a verb for what that noun -er does. Hence, an editor will edit,
a sculptor will sculpt and burglars, peddlers and swindlers will burgle, peddle and swindle.

Blending
The combination of two separate forms to produce a single new term is called blending.
However, blending is typically accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and
joining it to the end of the other word. In some parts of the USA, there's a product that is used
like gasoline but is made from alcohol, so the ‘blended' word for referring to this product is
gasohol. To talk about the combined effects of smoke and fog, we can use the word smog. In
places where they have a lot of this stuff, they can jokingly make a distinction between smog and
smaze (smoke + haze). Some other commonly used examples of blending are bit (binary + digit,
brunch (breakfast + lunch), motel (motor +hotel) and telecast (television +broadcast).
In a few blends, we combine the beginnings of both words, as in terms from information
technology such as telex (teleprinter + exchange) or modem (modulator + demodulator).

Clipping
The element of reduction that is noticeable in blending is even more apparent in the
process described as clipping. This occurs when a word of more than one syllable (facsimile) is
reduced to a shorter form (fax), usually beginning in casual speech. The term gasoline is still
used, but most people talk about gas, using the clipped form. Other common examples are ad
(advertisement), bra (brassiere), condo (condominium), fan (fanatic) and flu (influenza). English
speakers also like to clip each other's names, as in Al, Ed, Liz and Mike.
There must be something about educational environments that encourages clipping
because so many words get reduced, as in chem (chemistry), exam (examination), phys-ed
(physical education) and poly-sci (political science).
A particular type of reduction, favored in Australian and British English, produces forms
technically known as hypocorisms. In this process, a long word is reduced to a single syllable,
then -y or -ie is added to the end. This is the process that results in movie (“moving pictures') and
telly (television). It has also produced Aussie (Australian), barbie (barbecue ) and hankie
(handkerchief).

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Borrowing
One of the most common sources of new words in English is the process simply labeled
borrowing, that is, the taking over of words from other languages. Throughout its history, the
English language has adopted a vast number of words from other languages, lilac (Persian),
piano (Italian), pretzel (German), sofa (Arabic), tattoo (Tahitian), tycoon (Japanese), yogurt
(Turkish) and zebra (Bantu).

Coinage
One of the least common processes of word formation in English is coinage, that is, the
invention of totally new terms. The most typical sources are invented trade names for
commercial products that become general terms (usually without capital letters) for any version
of that product. Older examples are aspirin, nylon, vaseline and zipper; more recent examples are
kleenex, teflon, tylenol and xerox.
New words based on the name of a person or a place are called eponyms. When we
talked about a hoover (or even a spangler), we were using an eponym. Other common eponyms
are sandwich (from the eighteenth-century Earl of Sandwich who first insisted on having his
bread and meat together while gambling) and jeans (from the Italian city of Genoa where the
type of cloth was first made). Some eponyms are technical terms, based on the names of those
who first discovered or invented things, such as fahrenheit (from the German, Gabriel
Fahrenheit), volt (from the Italian, Alessandro Volta) and watt (from the Scot, James Watt).

Acronyms
Acronyms are abbreviations that can be formed in two ways. First, words can be formed
from initial letters of each part of a compound word or phrase and then pronounced as the words
they become:
SARS severe acute respiratory syndrome
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NIMBY not in my backyard
FAQs frequently asked questions
Some acronyms have become so ingrained in the language that we may no longer know
what the letters once stood for; they have also usually lost their uppercase letters in the acronym.
laser light amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation
radar radio detecting and ranging
scuba self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
The second type of acronym is the initialism, a word created by initial letters, and they
are pronounced with their letter names:
OMG Oh my God
NCR National Capital Region
SSS Social Security System
brb be right back

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We can also distinguish orthographic initialisms/abbreviations, in which the written word

is a shortening of some other word, but we pronounce the whole word rather than the abbreviated
form:
Jr., Dr., Mrs., Mr., wt. (for weight), g (for gram), state names-AZ (Arizona), OH (Ohio)
and NY (New York).
A subtype of initialism is a word formed from letters within a word rather than from
separate words. An example is TV/tv for television

Reduplication
Reduplication is the process of forming new words by doubling either an entire free
morpheme (total reduplication) or part of it (partial reduplication). English doesn't use
reduplication very productively to form new words, though it does use a version of reduplication
in certain expressions and in baby talk to form words related to or derived from the original
meaning of a word (e.g., wa-wa from water). Other examples are knock knock, hocus-pocus,
tutti-frutti, bye bye, dada and boo-boo.

Derivation
In our list so far, we have not dealt with what is by far the most common word formation
process to be found in the production of new English words. This process is called derivation
and it is accomplished by means of a large number of small ‘bits’ of the English language which
are not usually given separate listings in dictionaries. These small ‘bits' are generally described
as affixes. Some familiar examples are the elements un-, mis-, pre-, -ful. -less. -ish -ism and-ness
which appear in words like unhappy, misrepresent, prejudge, joyful, careless, boyish, terrorism
and sadness.

Activity 2. Identifying Word Formation Processes

Directions: Identify the word formation process described in each item. Write your answer in the
space provided.
Example: acronym 1. The process of forming a new word from the initial letters of other words
_______________1. The process of changing the function of a word, such as a noun to a verb, as
a way of forming new words
_______________2. The process of forming new words by adding affixes
_______________3. The process of inventing new words
_______________4. The process of reducing a word such as a noun to a shorter version and
using it as a new word
________________5. The process of combining two (or more) words to form a new word
________________6. The process of taking words from other languages
________________7. The process of combining the beginning of one word and the end of
another word to form a new word
________________8. The process of reducing a word of more than one syllable to a shorter form

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Activity 2. Telling How a Word Is Formed

Directions: Tell how each word is formed. Write your answer in the space provided.
Example: compounding 1. notebook
_________________1. WHO
_________________2. orate
_________________3.emoticon
_________________4. Sam
_________________5. addition
_________________6. house husband
_________________7. sci-fi
_________________8. blah-blah
_________________9. acceptable
_________________10. workaholic
Mastery Test
Forming New Words
Directions: Form a new word from the given word based on the suggested word formation
process enclosed in parentheses. Write your answer in the space provided.
Examples: sunflower 1. sun + flower (compounding)
edit 2. editor (backformation)
_________________1. night (duplication)
_________________2. manage (derivation)
_________________3. professor (clipping)
_________________4. revision (back formation)
_________________5. commander + in + chief (compounding)
_________________6. chill + lax (blending)
_________________7. neat (derivation)
_________________8. mothers against drugs (acronym)
_________________9. friend + enemy (blending)
_________________10. gymnasium (clipping)

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